Don't judge teen mums - we're not the lazy idiots you think we are

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I got pregnant when I was 15-years-old. I had no idea at the time. There were a lot of things going on with my family, and I thought I’d put on a bit of weight because I was comfort eating. But one day my form tutor at school asked me to come and talk to her.

She’d noticed changes in my body and said, 'Elle I’m quite concerned you might be pregnant'. I was completely shocked. I’d been with my boyfriend Tyler since I was 13, and when we started sleeping together, we'd always used condoms. But I went with him to take a test and realised she was right. I was pregnant.

I decided that I wanted an abortion. The doctor thought I was already 22 weeks pregnant, but when I rushed to have a private scan, they said it was actually 33 weeks - far too late for a termination.

"People think we all have babies to get council flats and benefits, we're stupid and we’re all uneducated and lazy."

Five years on, I have a four-year-old daughter Willow. I wouldn’t change what happened for the world, and I don’t think I would have been able to go through with an abortion - even if I had been able to have one.

I wanted to tell my story today because of new data from the Health and Social Care Information Centre, which shows a rise in the number of under-14 births in England last year, from 133 to 143. It showed there were also thousands of births among older teenagers, with 23,262 babies born to girls aged 15 to 19.

Every time figures like this come out, the old myths and stereotypes rear their heads. People start to criticise teen mums, saying we only have babies to get council flats and benefits, and that we're all stupid, uneducated and lazy.

Elle and Willow

But that’s not true. I was doing my GCSEs when I had a baby and I got a mixture of As and Bs. I did so well that the local paper picked up on my story and photographed Willow clutching my certificate.

I’m still with Tyler and we’re engaged to be married. He works as a junior accountant and contract manager for his dad’s construction firm, and studies construction at university one day a week. I study and work too.

I finished my A-levels, though I didn’t do as well as I hoped because I was really struggling – I think I had undiagnosed post-natal depression. But now I’m studying for a degree in early childhood studies with the University of Chichester. I’m working in a local reception class as well, and when I graduate, I hope to become a primary school teacher myself.

I work really hard. I don’t just sit around watching Jeremy Kyle all day, as some people might think. Tyler and I don’t really get drunk either. We only go out properly once every two months, and though it’s hard to miss out on the social scene, we know you don’t have to drink to have a good time.

"I don’t just sit around watching Jeremy Kyle all day as some people might think."

We have fun with Willow, too. She’s amazing and we love playing with Lego or watching Disney together. We took her to Disneyworld in Orlando for the first time this summer, and it was the best holiday. She teaches me things too – she loves football, so I’m getting into that with her.

No matter what some people might think, having a baby hasn’t ruined my life at all. It’s given me a completely different life to the one I’d imagined – I always thought I’d go to uni, study architecture and eventually have my own business.

It’s changed my plan, but it's enabled me to find myself. By having Willow, I’ve discovered that teaching is what I really want to do.

Elle, Tyler and Willow at Disneyworld

Right now I have the best of both worlds. I work very hard on my degree at a local college on the Isle of Wight, but I still get to spend time with Willow. By the time she’s seven, I’ll be qualified and Tyler will have finished his construction degree, too.

Tyler and I did struggle at one point. We split up for a while when Willow was one and I was going through a hard time with my mental health and A-levels. I was so caught up in my problems that I couldn’t see how much he was supporting me. But now we’re stronger than ever.

We’re good parents, just like so many others out there who had children when they were teens. I hope that people who still have stereotypical ideas of awful, lazy teenagers with babies will read this and realise they’re wrong – being a teen mum isn’t ‘the worst thing ever’. It can be an amazing, eye-opening experience - and it’s one I wouldn’t change for the world.